During the construction of the Singapore MRT underground stations, various concrete walls and columns had to be built in the path of the Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) prior to tunnelling.

mateen-bar^TM was used for 'soft-eyes' within walls and 'soft-column' sections in positions where the TBM would be required to cut through during later stages of construction.

year

2002

owner

SMRT Trains LTD

size

109km of line

stations

64 currently operating

(expansion in progress)

daily usage

1.654 million passengers

Northside storage tunnel

The Northside Storage Tunnel was built in Sydney, Australia (1998-2000) from the suburb of Lane Cove (Western Sydney) to North Head. The total tunnel length was in excess of 20km, with diameters from 3.8metres to 6.6 metres, a total excavation of 750,000m3 of ground and a project cost of USD 400 million.

The tunnel was commissioned to collect storm overflow from the sewerage system to reduce contamination from raw sewage entering Sydney's iconic harbour.

Due to the potentially corrosive nature of the chemicals present in the storm-water and sewage overflow, it was determined that stainless steel reinforcement could not offer the required life-span and that more corrosion resistant materials would be required.

Pultron worked in conjunction with tunnel design engineers to develop specialised tunnel reinforcement rockbolts based on mateen-bar^TM which fulfilled the required mechanical properties and offered the extreme corrosion resistance required for this difficult application.

year

1998-2000

project value

USD 400 million

designer

Connell Wagner

construction

MWH, Transfield

owner

Sydney Water

Eastlink tunnel

The mateen-bar^TM was used to create isolation breaks within the Springvale Road tunnel on the USD 2.0 billion "Eastlink M3" toll road in Melbourne, Australia.

If steel reinforcement is continuous throughout the length of a tunnel, eddy currents created by induction are sufficient to accelerate the rate of corrosion within the steel reinforcement. Solving this was traditionally costly: extra reinforcement was allowed for within the design to compensate for the accelerated corrosion; joints were welded to ensure electrical contact; and earthing systems were linked to sacrificial cathodic blocks. This was both time consuming and expensive.

The electrical insulation properties of mateen-bar^TM allowed the designers to isolate short sections of reinforcement - thereby reducing eddy currents and reducing the affects of accelerated corrosion, as well as saving both time and money on the project.

year

2007

project cost

USD 2.0 billion

owner

ConnectEast Pty LTD

construction

Thiess John Holland JV